February 24, 2013: "One day, turning off the lights won't be up to you - Governments have taken suicidal gambles with our energy supplies" by Christopher Booker, columnist for the Telegraph, London, United Kingdom.

"Alistair Buchanan, retiring head of the energy regulator Ofgem, [said] that next month we will see the closure of five major coal-fired power stations that between them contribute nearly a sixth of the UK’s average electricity needs.

"Over the next few years, Mr Buchanan feared, we will be dangerously close to not having enough power in the grid to keep Britain’s lights on."

"Our lights will go out, our economy will suffer a catastrophe, our bills will double, and tens of thousands more people will die of cold in those freezing winters that our politicians were somehow fooled into believing would never come again."

Coping with coming power shortages will be much harderfor England than it has been for warm Cuba. Yet that is thedirection the U.K. is headed with irresponsible energy policies that replace reliable coal-fired power plants with unreliable wind power.Photo: Cuban girl reads during power outage, Jorge Rey/AP